Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by apes, who later returns to civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel "Tarzan of the Apes" (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and then in twenty-three sequels and innumerable works in other media, authorized or not.

The Tarzan character

Tarzan is the son of a British Lord and Lady who were marooned on the West coast of Africa by mutineers. When Tarzan was a year old, his mother died of natural causes, and his father was killed by Kerchak, leader of the ape tribe into which Tarzan was adopted. Kerchak's tribe of apes is known as the Mangani, Great Apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother. Tarzan (White-skin) is his ape name; his English name is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke (the formal title is Viscount Greystoke according to Burroughs in "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle"; Earl of Greystoke in later, non-canonical sources, notably the 1984 movie "Greystoke"). As a young adult, he meets a young American woman, Jane Porter, who along with her father and others of their party is marooned at exactly the same spot on the African coast where Tarzan's parents were twenty years earlier. When she returns to America, he leaves the jungle in search of her, his one true love. In later books, Tarzan and Jane marry and he lives with her for a time in England. They have one son, Jack, who takes the ape name Korak the Killer. Tarzan is contemptuous of the hypocrisy of civilization, and he and Jane return to Africa, making their home on an extensive estate that becomes a base for Tarzan's later adventures.

In Tarzan, Burroughs created an extreme example of a hero figure largely unalloyed with character flaws or faults. He is described as being Caucasian, extremely athletic, tall, handsome, and tanned, with grey eyes and black hair. Emotionally, he is courageous, loyal and steady. He is intelligent and learns new languages easily. He is presented as behaving ethically, at least by Burroughs' definitions, in most situations, except when seeking vengeance under the motivation of grief, as when his ape mother Kala is killed in "Tarzan of the Apes", or when he believes Jane has been murdered in "Tarzan the Untamed". He is deeply in love with his wife and totally devoted to her, and in numerous situations where other women express their attraction to Tarzan, politely but firmly declines their attentions. When presented with a situation where a weaker individual or party is being preyed upon by a stronger foe, Tarzan invariably takes the part of the weaker party. In dealing with other men Tarzan is firm and forceful. With male friends he is reserved but deeply loyal and generous. As a host he is likewise generous and gracious. As a leader he commands devoted loyalty.

In contrast to these noble characteristics, Tarzan's philosophy embraces an extreme form of "return to nature." Although he is able to pass within society as a civilized individual, he prefers to "strip off the thin veneer of civilization," as Burroughs often puts it."The Return of Tarzan", chapter 2, being the earliest instance.] His preferred dress is a knife and a loincloth of animal hide, his preferred abode is a convenient tree branch which happens to be nearby when he desires to sleep, and his favored food is raw meat, killed by himself; even better if he is able to bury it a week so that putrefaction has had a chance to tenderize it a bit.

Tarzan's primitivist philosophy was absorbed by countless fans, amongst whom was Jane Goodall, who describes the Tarzan series as having a major influence on her childhood. She states that she felt she would be a much better spouse for Tarzan than his fictional wife, Jane, and that when she first began to live among and study the chimpanzees she was fulfilling her childhood dream of living among the great apes just as Tarzan did.See The Jane Goodall Institute's Biography of Jane Goodall [http://www.janegoodall.org/jane/study-corner/Jane/bio.asp] .]

kills and abilities

In many ways, Tarzan's jungle upbringing gave him abilities above and beyond those of ordinary humans. These abilities include climbing, clinging, and leaping as well as any great ape, as well as walking on all fours exceptionally well, despite his human frame. His senses are enhanced; he is able to smell food or poachers at least two thirds of a mile away, and hear approaching stampedes from two. He can read body language exceptionally well. He is an excellent judge of character.

His strength, speed, agility, reflexes, balance, flexibility, reaction time, and swimming abilities are much better than normal. He has wrestled full grown bull apes and gorillas, rhinos, crocodiles, anacondas, sharks, big cats and even dinosaurs (when he visited Pellucidar). He has bent iron bars in his bare hands and easily lifted large treasure chests one-handed that four burly sailors had trouble with. His aim never fails.

He is capable of communicating with every species of animal in the jungle, short of predators. He can recover from wounds that would kill normal men, such as gunshot wounds to the head. He was trained as a soldier in WWI and possesses advanced learning skills which enabled him to teach himself how to read with nothing but a few books. He is attacked by a sorcerer who is using a magic rock for mind control, only to discover Tarzan is immune to mental probing. Eventually, Tarzan becomes immortal due to a witch doctor's potion.

Literature

Tarzan has been called one of the best-known literary characters in the world. [John Clute and Peter Nicholls, "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", St. Martin's Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-09618-6, p. 178, "Tarzan is a remarkable creation, and possibly the best-known fictional character of the century."] In addition to more than two dozen books by Burroughs and a handful more by authors with the blessing of Burroughs' estate, the character has appeared in films, radio, television, comic strips, and comic books. Numerous parodies and pirated works have also appeared.

Science fiction author Philip José Farmer wrote "Tarzan Alive!", a biography of Tarzan utilizing the frame device that he was a real person. In Farmer's fictional universe, Tarzan, along with Doc Savage and Sherlock Holmes, are the cornerstones of the Wold Newton family.

Even though the copyright on "Tarzan of the Apes" has expired in the United States of America, the name Tarzan is still protected as a trademark of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. [ [http://www.erblist.com/erbmania/trademark.html "The Tarzan Trademark (U.S.)"] ] Also, the work remains under copyright in some other countries where copyright terms are longer.

Critical reception

While "Tarzan of the Apes" met with some critical success, subsequent books in the series received a cooler reception and have been criticized for being derivative and formulaic. The characters are often said to be two-dimensional, the dialogue wooden, and the storytelling devices (such as excessive reliance on coincidence) strain credibility. While Burroughs is not a polished novelist, he is a vivid storyteller, and many of his novels are still in print. [John Clute and Peter Nicholls, "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", St. Martin's Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-09618-6, p. 178, "It has often been said that ERB's works have small literary or intellectual merit. Nevertheless,...because ERB had a genius for the literalization of the dream, they have endured."] In 1963, author Gore Vidal wrote a piece on the Tarzan series that, while pointing out several of the deficiencies that the Tarzan books have as works of literature, praises Edgar Rice Burroughs for creating a compelling "daydream figure." [ [http://www.esquire.com/features/gore-vidal-archive/tarzan-revisited-1263 "Tarzan Revisited" by Gore Vidal] ]

Despite critical panning, the Tarzan stories have been amazingly popular. Fans love his melodramatic situations and the elaborate details he works into his fictional world, such as his construction of a partial language for his great apes. [ [http://www.erblist.com/erbmania/tangor/ape-english.html Bozarth, David Bruce. "Ape-English Dictionary."] ]

Since the beginning of the 1970s, Tarzan books and movies have often been criticized as being blatantly racist. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_5_59/ai_55722257 Tarzan - Review | Humanist | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] The early books give an overwhelmingly negative and stereotypical portrayal of native Africans, both Arab and Black. In "The Return of Tarzan", Arabs are "surly looking" and say things like "dog of a Christian," while blacks are "lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering," Other ethnic groups and social classes are likewise rendered as stereotypes; this was the custom in popular fiction of the time. A Swede has "a long yellow moustache, an unwholesome complexion, and filthy nails" and Russians cheat at cards. The aristocracy (excepting the House of Greystoke) and royalty are invariably effete. [ Edgar Rice Burroughs, "The Return of Tarzan", Grosset & Dunlap, 1915 ASIN B000WRZ2NG] In later books, there is an attempt to portray Africans in a more realistic light. For example, in "Tarzan's Quest", while the hero is still Tarzan, and the Black Africans relatively primitive, they are portrayed as individuals, with good and bad traits, and the main villains have white skins. Burroughs never does get over his distaste for European royalty, though. [Edgar Rice Burroughs, "Tarzan's Quest", Grosset & Dunlop, 1936, ASIN B000O3K9EU]

Burroughs' opinions, made known mainly through the narrative voice in the stories, reflect common attitudes, widely held in his time, which in a 21st-century context would be considered racist and sexist. The author is not especially mean-spirited in his attitudes. His heroes do not engage in violence against women or in racially motivated violence. Still, the attitudes of a superior-inferior relationship are plain and occasionally explicit; according to James Loewen's "Sundown Towns", this may be a vestige of Burroughs having been from Oak Park, Illinois, a former Sundown town (a town that forbids non-whites from living within it)--or it may very well be the fact these were common attitudes at the turn of the century.

Like many men of his time, Burrough's racism was part of what he absorbed from the culture around him. When Burroughs moved to Hollywood, his attitudes became much more liberal, and the later Tarzan books include heavy-handed satire of sexism, racism, and organized religion. [Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike, "Black African Cinema", University of California Press 1994, p. 40] In "Jungle Tales of Tarzan", Tarzan adopts a little Black boy, and teaches him jungle lore. Whites who mistreat Blacks are portrayed as in the wrong, and if his view of Blacks is by-and-large negative, his view of whites is no better. As for sexism, in "Tarzan's Quest", we have a situation in which Jane acknowledges that a man should "naturally" be the leader of their little band, but, since none of the men present are competent to undertake the task, she assumes leadership herself.

Also, some defenders of the Tarzan series argue that some of the words Burroughs uses to describe Africans, such as "savage," were generally understood to have a different and less offensive meaning in the early 20th century than they do today.

Unauthorized works

After Burroughs' death a number of writers produced new Tarzan stories without the permission of his estate. In some instances, the estate managed to prevent publication of such unauthorized pastiches. The most notable exception in the United States was a series of five novels by the pseudonymous "Barton Werper" that appeared 1964-65 by Gold Star Books. As a result of legal action by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., they were taken off the market and remaining copies destroyed. Similar series appeared in other countries, notably Argentina, Israel, and some Arab countries.

In Israel in the 1950s and early 1960s there was a thriving industry of locally-produced Tarzan adventures published weekly in 24-page brochures by several competing publishing houses, none of which bothered to get any authorization from the Burroughs estate. The stories featured Tarzan in contemporary Africa, a popular theme being his fighting against the Mau Mau in 1950s Kenya and single-handedly crushing their revolt several times over. He also fought a great variety of monsters, vampires and invaders from outer space infesting the African jungles, and discovered several more lost cities and cultures in addition to the ones depicted in the Burroughs canon. Some brochures had him meet with Israelis and take Israel's side against her Arab enemies, especially Nasser's Egypt.

None of the brochures ever bore a writer's name, and the various publishers - "Elephant Publishing" (Hebrew: הוצאת הפיל), "Rhino Publishing" (Hebrew: הוצאת הקרנף) and several similar names - provided no more of an address than POB numbers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. These Tarzan brochures were extremely popular among Israeli youths of the time, successfully competing with the numerous Hebrew translations of the original Tarzan novels, and are recalled with nostalgia by many Israelis now in their fifties. The Tarzan brochures faded out by the middle 1960s, surviving copies at present fetching high prices as collectors' items in the Israeli used-book market. Researcher Eli Eshed has spent considerable time and effort on the Tarzan brochures and other Israeli pulp magazines and paperbacks. See: [ [http://www.violetbooks.com/tarzan-israel.html Violet Books: Tarzan in Israel ] ] [ [http://www.violetbooks.com/REVIEWS/tarzan-holyland.html The Weird Review: Tarzan in the Holy Land ] ] - and [ [http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=209150&contrassID=2&subContrassID=12&sbSubContrassID=0 אוריאל אופק מהגיהנום - הארץ ] ] (Hebrew website with cover of "Tarzan's War Against the Germans").

The popularity of Tarzan in Israel had some effect on the spoken Hebrew language. As it happens, "tarzan" (Hebrew: טרזן) is a long-established Hebrew word, translatable as "dandy, fop, coxcomb" (according to R. Alcalay's "Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary" of 1990). However, a word could not survive with that meaning while being identical with the name of a popular fictional character usually depicted as wearing a loincloth and jumping from tree to tree in the jungle. Since the 1950s the word in its original meaning has completely disappeared from the spoken language, and is virtually unknown to Hebrew speakers at present - though still duly appearing in dictionaries.Fact|date=July 2007

In the 1950s Syria and Lebanon also saw the flourishing of unauthorized Tarzan stories. As could be expected, Tarzan in this version was a staunch supporter of the Arab cause and helped his Arab friends foil various fiendish Israeli plots. [James R. Nesteby,'Tarzan of Arabia', in the Journal of Popular Culture, volume 15, number 1, 1981.]

Tarzan in film and other non-print media

Film

The Internet Movie Database lists 88 movies with Tarzan in the title between 1918 and 1999. The first Tarzan movies were silent pictures adapted from the original Tarzan novels which appeared within a few years of the character's creation. With the advent of talking pictures, a popular Tarzan movie franchise was developed, anchored at first by actor Johnny Weissmüller in the title role, which lasted from the 1930s through the 1960s. Tarzan films from the 1930s on often featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion, Cheeta. Later Tarzan films have been occasional and somewhat idiosyncratic. Disney’s animated "Tarzan" (1999) marked a new beginning for the ape man, taking its inspiration equally from Burroughs and "Greystoke".

Radio

Tarzan was the hero of two popular radio programs. The first aired from 1932-1936 with James Pierce in the role of Tarzan. The second ran from 1951-1953 with Lamont Johnson in the title role. [ Robert R. Barrett, "Tarzan on Radio", Radio Spirits, 1999. ]

Television

Television later emerged as the primary vehicle bringing the character to the public. In 1958, movie Tarzan Gordon Scott filmed three episodes for a prospective television series. The program did not sell, but a different live action "Tarzan" series starring Ron Ely ran on NBC from 1966-1968. An animated series from Filmation, "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle", aired from 1976–1977, followed by the anthology programs "Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour" (1977–1978), "Tarzan and the Super 7" (1978–1980), "The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour" (1980–1981), and "The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour") (1981–1982). Joe Lara starred in the title role in "Tarzan in Manhattan" (1989), an offbeat TV movie, and later returned in a completely different interpretation in ' (1996), a new live-action series. In between the two productions with Lara, Tarzán, a half-hour syndicated series ran from 1991 through 1994. In this version of the show, Tarzan was portrayed as a blond environmentalist, with Jane turned into a French ecologist. Disney’s animated series "The Legend of Tarzan" (2001-2003) was a spin-off from its animated film. The latest television series was the live-action "Tarzan" (2003), which starred male model Travis Fimmel and updated the setting to contemporary New York City, with Jane as a police detective, played by Sarah Wayne Callies. The series was cancelled after only eight episodes. A 1981 television special, ', features a short sketch entitled "Tarzan and Jane." Lily Tomlin plays Jane opposite The Great Gonzo as Tarzan. In addition, the Muppets have since the 1960s.

tage

A 1921 Broadway production of "Tarzan of The Apes" starred Ronald Adair as Tarzan and Ethel Dwyer as Jane Porter. In 1976, Richard O'Brien wrote a musical entitled "T. Zee," loosely based on Tarzan but restyled in a rock idiom. "Tarzan", a musical stage adaptation of the 1999 animated feature, opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway on May 10, 2006. The show, a Disney Theatrical production, was directed and designed by Bob Crowley. The same version of Tarzan that was played at the Richard Rodgers Theatre is being played throughout Europe and has been a huge success in Holland. The Broadway show closed on July 8, 2007. Tarzan also appeared in the "Tarzan Rocks!" show at the Theatre in the Wild at Walt Disney World Resort's Disney's Animal Kingdom. The show closed in 2006.

Video and computer games

In the mid-1980s there was an arcade video game called "Jungle King" that featured a Tarzan-like character in a loin cloth. A game under the title "Tarzan Goes Ape" was released in the 1980s for the Commodore 64. A "Tarzan" computer game by Michael Archer was produced by Martech. Disney's Tarzan had seen video games released for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Tarzan also appeared in the PS2 game "Kingdom Hearts," although this Tarzan was shown in the Disney context, not the original conceptional idea of Tarzan by Bourroughs. In the first "Rayman", a Tarzan-like version of Rayman named Tarayzan appears in the Dream Forest.

Ephemera

There have been several Tarzan View-Master reels and packets, plus numerous Tarzan coloring books, children's books, follow-the-dots and activity books.

Tarzan in comics

"Tarzan of the Apes" was adapted in newspaper strip form, in early 1929, with illustrations by Hal Foster. A full page Sunday strip began March 15 1931 by Rex Maxon. Over the years, many artists have drawn the "Tarzan" comic strip, notably Burne Hogarth, Russ Manning, and Mike Grell. The daily strip began to reprint old dailies after the last Russ Manning daily (#10,308, which ran on 29 July, 1972). The Sunday strip also turned to reprints circa 2000. Both strips continue as reprints today in a few newspapers and in "Comics Revue" magazine. NBM Publishing did a high quality reprint series of the Foster and Hogarth work on Tarzan in a series of hardback and paperback reprints in the 1990s.

Tarzan has appeared in many comic books from numerous publishers over the years. The character's earliest comic book appearances were in comic strip reprints published in several titles, such as "Sparkler", "Tip Top Comics" and "Single Series". Western Publishing published "Tarzan" in Dell Comics's "Four Color Comics" #134 & 161 in 1947, before giving him his own series, "Tarzan", published through Dell Comics and later Gold Key Comics from Jan-Feb 1948 to February, 1972). DC took over the series in 1972, publishing "Tarzan" #207-258 from April 1972 to February 1977. In 1977 the series moved to Marvel Comics, which restarted the numbering rather than assuming that used by the previous publishers. Marvel issued "Tarzan" #1-28 (as well as three Annuals), from June 1977 to October 1979. Following the conclusion of the Marvel series the character had no regular comic book publisher for a number of years. During this period Blackthorne Comics published "Tarzan" in 1986, and Malibu Comics published "Tarzan" comics in 1992. Dark Horse Comics has published various "Tarzan" series from 1996 to the present, including reprints of works from previous publishers like Gold Key and DC, and joint projects with other publishers featuring crossovers with other characters.

There have also been a number of different comic book projects from other publishers over the years, in addition to various minor appearances of Tarzan in other comic books. The Japanese manga series "Jungle no Ouja Ta-chan" (King of the Jungle Ta-chan) by Tokuhiro Masaya was based loosely on Tarzan. Also, manga "god" Osamu Tezuka created a Tarzan manga in 1948 entitled "Tarzan no Himitsu Kichi" ("Tarzan's Secret Base").

In a one off mini series Tarzan teamed with Batman. The art was supplied by Igor Kordey.

Works inspired by Tarzan

In the 1940s, the Finnish writer Lahja Valakivi published several adventure novels about "Tarsa karhumies", i.e., Tarsa the Bear Man. The books were obviously inspired by Tarzan, but they were adapted into a Finnish setting: as there are no apes in Finland, the hero Tarsa was raised by bears instead. [ [http://bibliografia.kuopio.fi/kirjailijat/v/valakivi_l/ Valakivi, L ] ]

In Asia, Philippine Cinema's inclination in satirizing western entertainment produced "Starzan", a comedy film loosely based on the original Tarzan franchise. It stars Filipino comedic actor Joey De Leon as Starzan, Rene Requiestas as "Chitae," and Zsa Zsa Padilla as Jane.

Tarzan appears briefly as a character in the book "Lust", by Geoff Ryman.

Trivia

* Tarzana, California, where Burroughs made his home, was renamed in honor of Tarzan in 1927.
* Michael Heseltine, a former British MP and senior government minister, is nicknamed "Tarzan" in honour of his having once seized the ceremonial mace in the House of Commons and swung it about his head in the middle of a debate. This action, together with Heseltine's flowing golden hair, was said to be distinctly in the style of Tarzan. The nickname has also been combined with his name into the portmanteau nickname "Hezza".Fact|date=July 2008
* The March 1959 issue of "Man's Adventure" published a story titled “The Man Who Really Was… Tarzan” by Thomas Llewellan Jones. This article claims that Tarzan was based on William Charles Mildin, 14th Earl of Streatham, who supposedly lived among the apes from 1868 (age 11) to 1883, before returning to England. None of the news stories claimed in the article exist in the archives of the London papers, and there is no record of such an Earl in the British peerage. Nonetheless, the story sometimes resurfaces as “fact.”

Bibliography

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

;Main Series
#"Tarzan of the Apes" (1912) (Project Gutenberg Entry: [http://gutenberg.net/etext/78] )
#"The Return of Tarzan" (1913) (Project Gutenberg [http://gutenberg.net/etext/81] )
#"The Beasts of Tarzan" (1914) (Project Gutenberg [http://gutenberg.net/etext/85] )
#"The Son of Tarzan" (1914) (Project Gutenberg [http://gutenberg.net/etext/90] )
#"Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar" (1916) (Project Gutenberg [http://gutenberg.net/etext/92] )
#"Jungle Tales of Tarzan" (1919) (Project Gutenberg [http://gutenberg.net/etext/106] )
#*"Tarzan's First Love" (1916)
#*"The Capture of Tarzan" (1916)
#*"The Fight for the Balu" (1916)
#*"The God of Tarzan" (1916)
#*"Tarzan and the Black Boy" (1917)
#*"The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance" (1917)
#*"The End of Bukawai" (1917)
#*"The Lion" (1917)
#*"The Nightmare" (1917)
#*"The Battle for Teeka" (1917)
#*"A Jungle Joke" (1917)
#*"Tarzan Rescues the Moon" (1917)
#"Tarzan the Untamed" (1920) (Project Gutenberg [http://gutenberg.net/etext/1401] )
#*"Tarzan the Untamed" (1919)
#*"Tarzan and the Valley of Luna" (1920)
#"Tarzan the Terrible" (1921) (Project Gutenberg [http://gutenberg.net/etext/2020] )
#"Tarzan and the Golden Lion" (1922, 1923)
#"Tarzan and the Ant Men" (1924)
#"Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle" (1927, 1928)
#"Tarzan and the Lost Empire" (1928)
#"Tarzan at the Earth's Core" (1929)
#"Tarzan the Invincible" (1930, 1931)
#"Tarzan Triumphant" (1931)
#"Tarzan and the City of Gold" (1932)
#"Tarzan and the Lion Man" (1933, 1934)
#"Tarzan and the Leopard Men" (1935)
#"Tarzan's Quest" (1935, 1936)
#"Tarzan and the Forbidden City" (1938)
#"Tarzan the Magnificent" (1939)
#*"Tarzan and the Magic Men" (1936)
#*"Tarzan and the Elephant Men" (1937-1938)
#"Tarzan and the Foreign Legion" (1947)
#"Tarzan and the Madman" (1964)
#"Tarzan and the Castaways" (1965)
#*"Tarzan and the Castaways" (1941)
#*"Tarzan and the Champion" (1940)
#*"Tarzan and the Jungle Murders" (1940);Other stories
*"Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins" (1963, for younger readers)
**"The Tarzan Twins" (1927)
**"Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins and Jad-Bal-Ja the Golden Lion" (1936)
*"" (with Joe R. Lansdale) (1995)

By other authors

*Barton Werper
*#"Tarzan and the Silver Globe" (1964)
*#"Tarzan and the Cave City" (1964)
*#"Tarzan and the Snake People" (1964)
*#"Tarzan and the Abominable Snowmen" (1965)
*#"Tarzan and the Winged Invaders" (1965)
**note: the Werper novels were never authorized by Burroughs, Inc.; they were taken off the market and remaining copies destroyed.

*Fritz Leiber
**"Tarzan and the Valley of Gold" (1966)
**note: this was the first novel authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, and was numbered as the 25th book in the Tarzan series.
*Philip José Farmer
**A character based on Tarzan (Lord Grandrith) appears in the Nine trilogy:
***"A Feast Unknown" (circa 1969)
***"Lord of the Trees" (circa 1970)
***"The Mad Goblin" (circa 1970)
**"Tarzan Alive" (1972)--A fictional biography of Tarzan (here Lord Greystoke), which is one of the two foundational books (along with "") of the Wold Newton family.
**"The Adventure of the Peerless Peer" (1974)
**"Time's Last Gift" (1985)
***Note: this novel explains how Tarzan can be in Ancient Opar (see below)
**"The Dark Heart of Time" (1999)
***Note: this novel was specifically authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, and references Tarzan by name rather than just by inference.
**"Hadon of Ancient Opar" (1974)
**"Flight to Opar" (1976)
***Note: The Opar novels were authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. A secondary character of the Opar novels—while not specifically named as "Tarzan"—was intended to be Tarzan by Farmer, and is included as such by most Wold Newton family scholars.:Farmer also wrote a novel based on his own fascination with Tarzan, entitled "Lord Tyger", and translated the novel "Tarzan of the Apes" into Esperanto.

*R. A. Salvatore
**"Tarzan: the Epic Adventures" (1996)

*Nigel Cox
**"Tarzan Presley" (2004). This novel combines aspects of Tarzan and Elvis Presley into a single character named Tarzan Presley, within New Zealand and American settings. Upon its release, it was subject to legal action in the United States, and has not been reprinted since its initial publication.

ee also

*Feral children in mythology and fiction
*George of the Jungle
*Gitarzan
*""
*Kreegah bundolo
*Mangani
*Tarzan Boy
*Tarzan yell
*Zembla
*Mowgli

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.Tarzan.com/ Official Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs Web Site]
* [http://publicliterature.org/books/tarzan_of_the_apes/xaa.php "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs]
* [http://publicliterature.org/books/beasts_of_tarzan/xaa.php "The Beasts of Tarzan" by Edgar Rice Burroughs]
* [http://www.Tarzan.org/ Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs]
* [http://www.ERBzine.com/ Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site]
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/results?subject=Tarzan+%28Fictitious+character%29 Free Tarzan eBooks by Project Gutenberg]
* [http://www.plaidstallions.com/tarzan/index.html Vintage Tarzan Toys]